Tried the new Google Docs presentation tool

Now, when you start a new document in Google Docs it can be a PowerPoint-like slideshow in addition to the word processing or spreadsheet choices.

I played around with it and found it easy to use when creating a brand new deck, very smooth. Haven't tried importing a .ppt file.

There's no sign of its name, "Presently," that was being thrown around pre-launch. It wouldn't make sense for it to have a separate marketing name within the context of the Docs interface. You'll recall they dropped the "Writely" name, too, when the independent online word processor was acquired to become part of the suite.

I have hopes for online office suites, but have to say that my self-imposed trial to do without MS Office for six months at home did not work out so well. I found that I needed certain advanced features both in a word processor and spreadsheet that Google Docs couldn't manage.

ZDNet's Google blogger didn't like the presentation tool, but its education blogger did. (Anyone else find the ZDnet education blog a little k-12-centric? When I read about higher ed online learning I find I'm able to apply more of it to corporate training.)